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       Jamie Lozada-McBride, a 15-year-old sophomore at Montgomery Blair High School, was in his journalism class earlier this week when news of the latest bomb threat emerged.

       There was “an event in the community,” he recalled hearing over the PA system, “that required a greater level of security.”

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       First, students were told to stay in their classrooms. Then they were ushered outside to the stadium bleachers so police could sweep through the school. Outside, as Jamie and others hung out and scrolled through TikTok, they again found themselves working their way through fear to normalcy.

       “It was just kind of scary how mundane it all was,” Jamie said.

       And it was all caused, police said Wednesday, by a 12-year-old. The youth emailed bomb threats targeting Blair five times from Oct. 13 through Tuesday, according to authorities.

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       “This reckless and dangerous behavior” caused “fear and chaos,” Montgomery Police Chief Marcus Jones said in a statement Wednesday.

       Under Maryland law, the 12-year-old cannot be charged in the case because children under 13 can only be charged with offenses that constitute a “crime of violence,” Jones noted.

       “It is disheartening to accept that the individual responsible for disrupting the educational process and instilling fear in our community was well aware of the legal limitations surrounding their age,” the chief added. “They understood that they could not be charged under current Maryland statutes.”

       Jones said the child admitted to his involvement in seven emailed bomb threats: five at Blair and two more on Oct. 15 that targeted Oak View Elementary School and Silver Spring International Middle School.

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       Jones said his detectives worked with school system IT staffers to identify the 12-year-old.

       In addition to those seven cases, police in Montgomery County are probing three more bomb threats targeting schools: Rockville High on Monday, Albert Einstein High on Wednesday and Springbrook High on Wednesday. It was unclear if investigators had identified a suspect in those incidents.

       No explosives were found from any of the threats.

       But each has left an impact. Parents received jolts of fear, dozens of officers were pulled from other duties, and students — who have maneuvered through a life defined by tragic school shootings and active-shooter drills — once again were told they could be in danger.

       “We want to treat every one of these as absolutely real,” said Capt. Jordan Satinsky, director of the Montgomery County Police Department’s Community Engagement Division. “Is responding to fake calls taxing on everyone? Yes. But we don’t really have a choice.”

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       Satinsky estimates that in work hours alone, Montgomery police have spent well more than $20,000 responding to the threats countywide since Oct. 13. That includes officers who go into schools with explosive-sniffing dogs and others who make sure schools are cleared and stay that way. A typical response, Satinsky said, is 15 officers. “Those are cops who can’t be sent to other emergencies,” he said.

       Around the nation, the number of bomb threats targeting schools is increasing, and the vast majority turn out unfounded, said Kenneth S. Trump, president of the Cleveland-based consulting firm National School Safety and Security Services. He has helped schools develop safety plans for more than 30 years.

       The threats generally come from two categories: Local sources, such as students or former students of a particular schools with a grievance; or “swatting” threats that can originate from out of state or out of the country and are sent digitally to schools or police departments.

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       Trump said that some school administrators reflexively overact to bomb threats. “We recommend assess first, then react,” Trump said. “Too often, administrators react, then assess.”

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       He noted that if students are moved to a field or stadium — and the person who submitted the bomb threat is a shooter bent on harming them — the evacuation puts “kids in a target-rich environment.”

       But Trump acknowledged school administrators and police face enormous pressure to ensure students are safe. “In today’s world, what school or police administrator wants to be that one who didn’t take something seriously that turned out to be very serious?” he said.

       Satinsky said that for people looking for instant — if anonymous — attention, social media and news coverage of lockdowns could motivate threats. And he said that the internet offers online tools and techniques to remain hidden even while submitting threats.

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       “The dark web provides endless ways to hide yourself,” Satinsky said.

       Five of the recent threats were directed at Montgomery Blair High School, whose 3,200 students make it the largest high school in Maryland, according to state data. Blair’s sprawling campus just north of the Capital Beltway is home to a nationally regarded math, science and computer science magnet program.

       The first Blair threat occurred Oct. 13, Satinsky said. About 15 officers responded, along with an explosive-sniffing dog who, after 30 minutes passing by lockers, “alerted” to a possible explosive. But officers were worried the dog’s fatigue yielded a false positive. So they let the dog take a break for 30 minutes and brought him back to the locker in question, where the dog didn’t alert, according to Satinsky.

       A note went out to parents about 6:50 a.m. notifying them of the threat. Students had to wait in the school’s stadium until police cleared the building at 9:20 a.m., according to a letter from Principal Renay Johnson to Blair parents.

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       The second threat, on Oct. 16, came through an email and parents were notified at 1:47 p.m., according to a separate letter from the school administration. School officials decided to dismiss students early at about 2:30 p.m. ahead of the normal 3:20 p.m. time. After-school activities were canceled. Police found no threat, according to a letter from Johnson.

       Monday’s threat also came through an email, according to an email from the school administration. Parents were notified at 11:12 a.m., and the building was cleared at 12:42 p.m. — cutting into about 90 minutes of class time.

       The threat to Oak View, by email on a Sunday, was cleared in enough time for school to go uninterrupted the next day, according to school and police officials.

       Many Blair students are trying to take events in stride. The school’s satirical newspaper, the Silver Splinter, has already published three pieces poking fun at the spate of incidents, jokingly dubbing it a “bomb threat festival.”

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       Jamie, the 15-year-old Blair student who observed his classmates’ calm, said he wasn’t sure what other action the school system could take to mitigate these kinds of incidents.

       Patricia Curran, whose daughter is a junior at the school, said the threats have stressed students and interrupted their days. “I think it’s hard to get them back on task,” she said.

       “We understand that events like these can be concerning to our school community, and I want to assure you that we have taken appropriate measures to address the situation promptly and efficiently,” Johnson, the principal, wrote Monday.

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